Paris in Springtime

Last month I was having picker withdrawals.  You know the feeling, too early for garage sales, no estate sales happening, nothing much on Craigslist.  I was on my way to lunch with my mother and sister, when I saw a sign in front of our Salvation Army store that said all furniture 1/2 off.  Woo Hoo! 

Sunflowers in Spring

Springtime in North Idaho can be anything from snow, to thunderstorms, to beautiful sunny days (OK wishful thinking on the sun).  Since it's way too early to think about gardening I thought I would paint something a nice sunny yellow.  Jeez, you'd think that would be easy enough don't you?  Well this little chair gave me so many fits that it almost went in the burn pile.

King Me

 I guess I could have called this post "Checkmate" instead of "King Me", but I never really learned chess, checkers was more my game.  I found this little table last year at a garage sale for $2.00.  I mean who can pass that up!  It had one broken leg, but nothing my hubby couldn't fix.  It was also missing the inserted top piece, someone had thrown a peel and stick vinyl square in there, thank goodness not stuck yet.  Originally I wanted to paint this yellow and transfer The Graphic Fairy French Bee in the center.  I still think that would have been cute, but I decided to go natural instead. 

Lenora's Sonora

   You know how one thing leads to another, and pretty soon you've remodeled your whole house?  Well that's what happened to my brother-in-law and his wife Lenora.  It started with wanting to put in a wood stove, well then you have to have a hearth, then the walls look a little drab so now you paint the whole house (different great colors), and now the decor is all wrong...well you get it.  In the midst of all this, they moved around some of their furniture and her Sonora phonograph didn't fit where it was anymore.  Lenora asked if I wanted it, and as great as it is (now!) I just don't have room for it.  I could tell she really didn't want to part with it so I said "how about if I fix it up to match your piano so you can put it next to it?"

Amarrei's Rocker

     Am I reverting back to my childhood, or channeling my inner child?  It sure seems like it, my last three posts have all been about things for kids.  I swear this should be the last one for awhile.
     Last summer my mother-in-law bought a cute little rocker at a yard sale for her newest great granddaughter.  Now it wasn't bad to start with, but it had that '60s French provincial thing going on, so I thought maybe we could bling it up a bit.

Zara's Apron

 Well, I thought I was done making aprons.  Don't get me wrong, I love making them, but I just didn't think I would need anymore, anytime soon.  Last summer I wrote how to make 3 aprons out of a shirt and a pair of jeans 1-shirt-1-pair-of-jeans-3-aprons .  For Christmas I made my daughter and two beautiful granddaughters aprons out of one shirt, and my son-in-law a barbecue apron out of some canvas with a duck on the pocket that I printed off the computer.  Sorry, no pictures of theirs, I was in a hurry to get them mailed off for Christmas.  So, like I said, I thought I was done until a friend called up and asked if I could make an apron for her granddaughter Zara.

Children's Rolltop Desk

 Late last summer I stopped at a church rummage sale looking for Christmas Decorations for our space at Paris Flea Market.  I had no intentions of buying anymore furniture since our shed was already pretty full of projects to work on during the winter.  Now some people I know won't go to a sale unless they can hit it early in the morning on the first day.  Not me!  I'm one of those crazy people that make quick turns anytime I see a garage sale sign.  Don't get me wrong, I do plan out my Friday mornings so I can hit the best sales first, but I also love catching sales late in the afternoon of the last day when everyone is ready to shut down.  That was the case with this adorable little desk.

Selling a Piece of My Childhood

    You know how it is when you go to an antique store and see an old toy or something marked "vintage", and you think "jeez I used to have one of those, am I considered vintage?".  Well I guess the answer is yes.

The Rusty Leopard

The Rusty Leopard - Sounds like the name of a great cocktail doesn't it, but no it's my name for this old oak desk chair.  I picked this up at a really good yard sale last summer for $10.  The cast iron mechanism was all rusted on it but worked, the caning on the seat was shot, and someone had already stripped the wood. (Sorry, I thought I had a before picture but I guess not.)  My husband thought it would be nice refinished back to the original oak, but I've seen too many around like that for sale so I wanted to do something different.  He also thought I was nuts when I said that I wanted to leave the mechanism rusted, but I knew I wanted a more industrial look to it.  My first thought was a Pottery Barn knock off black with some type of upholstered seat.  It sat around for months until I finally found this wild fabric for $1 at our local thrift store.  It got a couple of coats of black paint that was leftover from some other projects and then I wove some nylon straps around the seat frame and upholstered it with the faux leopard.  When I went to put it all together the shade of black was too soft and didn't go well with the fabric.  I figured with the rusted cast iron, and the colors in the fabric it could use a little brown tint, so I glazed it with some Martha Stewart Black Coffee glaze.  Have I told you how much I love this stuff?  I used it with a gray base coat for my zinc dresser, RH Style Zinc Dresser and know I got a completely different look on black.  Well my wild white bench that was upholstered in a faux snow leopard sold in a week, so hopefully this will have the same results.

Partying at:

The Chicken Chick
coastal charm
savvy southern style
beyond the picket fence
pjh designs  

Wild White Bench

 Awhile back I posted about this vanity which I painted the perfect shade of white.  I custom mixed a Swiss Coffee White with some brown to get a nice cream color.  I brought the vanity and a really cute sewing chair into the store to sell, and wouldn't you know the chair sold within a few days.  Luckily I had this old bench to replace the chair.